West Yellowstone, Montana

Baker’s Hole

Because the half marathon was being held in West Yellowstone, Montana, which is just outside of the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park, we needed a place to stay nearby. West Yellowstone is a town that seems to only exist to cater to those visiting the park, which means it has many hotels and several large commercial RV parks. Not only do I dislike commercial RV parks, the ones in town were full and cost a small fortune to stay in. So we needed to find alternative accommodations.

Baker’s Hole is a campground in the Gallatin National Forest, just a mile or so north of West Yellowstone and only about 4 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. In other words it was a perfect location for us to stay a handful of days. Problem is it is a first-come first-serve campground, in a very popular location. No problem, right?

We rolled into town on Friday, the day before the race, and managed to snag the second to last spot in the campground, which has 73 sites, so it isn’t that small. Apparently the campground fills up around 6 on a normal day, but the weekend we arrived it was full by the mid afternoon because of the half marathon. Glad we didn’t roll into town any later than we did!

Our campground was a dry site, which means no water or power. Not a big deal and worked well for us. Spacing was fine and we weren’t annoyed by our neighbors even though the campground was full. Might have something to do with the fact that we spent most of our time exploring Yellowstone National Park.

Baker’s Hole was one of those campgrounds where I neglected to take pics of the actual campground. Maybe I was tired of snapping photos while in the park. The only ones I took at the campground were of the Madison River, which runs along the east side.

Yellowstone Half Marathon

Once again we were up early and arrived at the staging area to stand around and wait for the big event to get started. Off Kathy went on her run through the forest and off to work I went until she approached the finish.

Technology worked in my favor once again, allowing me to observe Kathy’s progress via the Find Friends app on my iPhone (starting to sound like an advertisement for Apple, right?). I left my temporary office at a local coffee shop/bakery and arrived in plenty of time to see Kathy cross the finish line.

I could get used to this form of attending a marathon. I get a bit of the flavor while not breaking a sweat. 🙂

Before the race

Before the race

Let’s get this thing started!

Queued up and ready to go

There she goes!

Kathy crossing the finish line

Finished with her second half marathon

Once Kathy’s final marathon of the summer was done, it was time to finish exploring Yellowstone National Park.